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Thursday, August 1, 2013

Summer Camp: Human S'mores and Kissing

note: Recaps and Remarks are going up later than usual due to Comic-Con and TCA.

While it is nice that attractiveness is not setting all of the rules, popularity is still coming into play for this "competition." With less focus on explaining who is whom, more time is devoted to showing the various campers sharing their thoughts on the others, both friend and foe. After two losses, the women finally win a round, which was probably almost rigged, as otherwise they might decline sharply with such a smaller team than the men. Some competitors are certainly getting more time than others, and not just because they're about to go home. Chuck and Melinda, who were probably most likely to be picked last for their respective kickball teams in the third grade, spend a lot of time in the spotlight of this program, though I wouldn't say they're not deserving. Both are interesting, though Chuck seems more likely to make it to the end than Melinda... Speaking of which, the fact that it hasn't been made clear at what point this game ends (and how many people will share the winnings) is strange, no?

Remaining Campers:
Rachel - 27, Wrightsville Beach, NC, "The Yogi."
Erin - 24, Tarpon Springs, FL, "The Country Girl" who is also a personal trainer.
Michelle - 24, Lafayette, LA, "The Bayou Bodybuilder" (aka Hooters bartender).
Melinda - 26, Denver, "The Geek." She does cosplay, was bullied at camp
when she was younger, and is clumsy, especially for a professional
stuntwoman.
Lauren - 23, Woodbury, MN, "The Mean Girl." She plays men's hockey.
Brooke - 23, Salt Lake City, "The Model." She attended a Mormon summer camp growing up.
Isis - 33, Los Angeles, "The Pageant Queen," even if that was back in 2005.

Summer Camp "S'More Drama" (S01E02): The guys are curious to find out who didn't vote the party line, and many suspect it to be Chris. So, when it comes time to vote in new Counselors, Kyle wins for the guys. [his family is NFL players??] The girls have a tie between Erin and Isis, and Brooke breads the tie, choosing Isis. The job of the Counselor has gotten more difficult, as they now choose who will attend camp socials, so when each team gets four tickets for a dance, Lauren, Rachel, Brooke, and Erin, plus Cameron, Moises, Justin, and Mike get to go while Melinda, Michelle, Chris, Chuck, and Mikey B. get
cleaning duty. Both teams think that these choices will help team bonds. [I keep questioning what, exactly, these bonds are going to do in this game.]

The Color Wars event this time has players hanging on to giant marshmallows as long as possible. [interesting idea.] If they fall, they land in graham crackers and fling chocolate pudding at the enemies. Kyle has to pick one man to sit out, and he picks Chris, who is glad he's not in the challenge. Melinda drops early so she can start flinging chocolate, and everyone soon learns that it's much easier to stay on when there are two of you per marshmallow! The last ones left are Chuck, Mikey B., Lauren, and Rachel. Lauren goes down on purpose (fulfilling her promise to the guys), and soon after, Mikey B. goes. Rachel focuses on her yoga training while Chuck uses physics to stay on, and that works in the end. [gotta love the king of the nerds...] Isis has to choose two people for banishment, and she can't pick Lauren because the guys are going to assume she's weak and keep leaving her alone. After discussing it with the others and getting a wide variety of opinions, she selects Melinda and Erin. The guys split up and each group talks to the girls one at a time. Sending Erin back may break down the girls' team, but sending Melinda back leaves a weaker competitor on their team, so the vote is 6:1, sending Erin home. [Mike was the odd one out.]

Summer Camp "Spin the Bottle" (S01E03): Chris thinks Justin would be a good candidate for Counselor, and he wins. On the girls' side, Lauren wants to be Counselor, but Rachel is chosen. After the guys TP'd the girls' restroom and Moises dresses as the Wolfman to scare Melinda, Isis and Lauren decide to prank the guys by running their underwear up a flagpole. [is it really embarrassing when you're an adult? don't you think that, at 25, you're mature enough to not freak out when someone sees your panties?]

Rachel gets a bunch of campers to do yoga with her, and then it's time for the Counselors to figure out who gets to go to the latest mixer. The Counselors get to hand out two tickets, each with a +1 attached. [interesting.] Rachel chooses Melinda and Lauren, because they either recently got banished or didn't get to go last time, and Justin selects Chuck and Mikey B. Everyone dresses up and then goes to ask people to come with them. [that sucks that you can't invite people first. I'd be pissed to get all dressed up and then had to wash a jeep!] Melinda invites Chris, Lauren chooses with Cameron. Michelle says she doesn't want to go, so she gets invited. [ha!] Chuck asks Brooke. Chuck and Melinda are crowned "sweethearts of the dance."

The morning of the Color Wars event, Rachel leads the ladies through a pep talk and meditation. [ugh.] The group will take turns being blindfolded and spun on top of a bottle. Then, they get kissed and have to guess who was the kisser. The first team to five wins. [so they're adult enough to randomly kiss people and think nothing of it, but not adult enough to think that underwear on a flagpole is a bad prank?]

Isabella Vosmikova/USA

The women decide on two people to remove from the boys' team to keep it even, and they select Justin and Mikey B. [I would have thought Justin would be an easy one to figure out with his facial hair!] After a few bad guesses, Melinda guesses Moises correctly, and he's identified again soon after. Then, Isis gets Mike right, Melinda gets Chris right, Cameron gets Lauren right, and Michelle gets Mike to win. [I completely believe that it's easier for women to guess men than the other way around.]

Justin has to pick two guys to banish, and Chris is an easy pick because the guys think he was giving himself away by pressing his face up against the girls and smacking his lips. The second selection is more difficult. Kyle is a possibility that could force out Chris, as Kyle is well-liked, but Kyle thinks that Chris has an in with the girls, too. Mike has been strategizing for the future and possibly coming up with a side-team, so he could be a good candidate, too. In the end, Justin goes with Chris and Mike. Mike questions who suggested he leave. [I would have done the same.] Isis asks Chris about sabotaging his team, and he admits to making his beard obvious to them during the kissing, so he should be kept around. Mike tells the girls that he could easily become captain and then really throw over some people who stabbed him in the back. But, the girls realize that sending home Chris means the other team will have to start risking stronger players, but it also means that a weaker player will be gone to compete against. Still, the final vote is 5-0, sending Mike home. [interesting choice...]